September 2012 – dingoRUE

The Amazing Race 21 Episode 1

The Amazing Race 21 cast of 11 new teams competing for the grand prize of $1 million includes:

Abbie & Ryan (dating divorcees)
Amy & Daniel (dating on and off)
Caitlin & Brittany (best friends)
Gary & Will (best friends/substitute teachers)
James & Abba (rock and roll friends)
Jaymes & James (Chippendales dancers/best friends)
Josh & Brent (goat farmers/life partners)
Nadiya & Natalie (twin sisters)
Rob & Kelley (married monster truckers)
Rob & Sheila (engaged lumberjacks)
Trey & Lexi (dating)

This should be fun. Three contestants named James, including one whose parents decided the name has a y in it and who also happens to be partnered with another person named James, two people named Rob, and Abba and Abbie. I’m sure we’ll be able to differentiate between them in no time. Once half a dozen teams have been eliminated.

The twist this season is that the prize will potentially double to $2 million in the event that the team that wins the first leg also wins the last leg. Not great odds, but it could happen. In each of the last two seasons, the team that won the first leg also won the last leg. In the last 8 seasons, the team that won the first leg has made it to the finals 7 times (4 of which concluded with them being winners) with the lone exception being Jordan & Jeff. I don’t know how much difference it may have made, but the last 4 seasons have involved the express pass as a prize for winning the first leg. Over all 20 seasons, the total number of teams making it to the finals after a first leg victory is 12 (including 6 winning teams). Historically, the odds are in the favor of the team that wins tonight’s leg to at least be competitive until the end, even if they don’t win it all. Perhaps now the Big Brother producers will stop being so cheap and increase their prize money.

This also marks the first season in which CBS will be rescheduling certain episodes to begin at 8:30 rather than 8:00 on the east coast. I’m not sure if that will make the scheduling easier to follow or just more confusing, but it should lead to fewer football overruns.

Trey & Lexi won’t be living together until they’re married. She hopes to win the race so he will put a ring on it. Twins Nadiya & Natalie did things like take each other’s exams and break up with the other one’s boyfriend. James was in White Lion and Megadeath, while Abba is his lawyer. After losing their jobs in the city, Josh & Brent bought a goat farm. As a result of bacterial menengitis, Amy had both her legs removed, but she is now a gold medal snowboarder. Caitlin & Brittany were college athletes who claim their blonde hair shouldn’t fool you. Sheila admits that Rob is the boss of her. Gary & Will have applied for the race 7 times. Abbie & Ryan think they are both physically strong, though they don’t mention their mental capabilities. Jaymes & James say their work with Chippendales is respectable. Rob says he’s an arrogant ass.

The starting line for the race is the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, CA. But they’re not just dashing to their bags. Their first task is a 10 story rapel off the bridge. Gary’s already telling Will to shut up.

Teams will travel by plane to Shanghai, China. There are two flights 1 hour and 15 minutes apart. The first 7 teams get on the first flight, which means Josh will be left behind after letting another team cut in front of him.

First flight: James & Jaymes, Caitlin & Brittany, James & Abba, Amy & Daniel, Abbie & Ryan, Natalie & Nadiya, Rob & Kelly
Second flight: Josh & Brent, Trey & Lexi, Rob & Sheila, Gary & Will

The road block is to play table tennis against a Chinese junior champion. Their task is to score a single point. If they mess up, they have to wait for the player to go through all the other teams before returning to give them another shot. In order to handicap the champion further, he’ll swap out for items such as a clipboard and frying pan rather than a paddle.

Road block (in order of arrival): James, Caitlin, Natalie, Abbie, James, Daniel, Kelley, Trey, Rob, Gary, Josh

As easy as this may seem, ping pong in China is no joke. The good news is they only have to get lucky one time.

It’s a double road block, and the person who just got off easy is now stuck eating hasma (frog fallopian tubes) with chopsticks.

Road block (in order of arrival): Abba, Ryan, Brittany, Amy, Jaymes, Nadiya, Rob, Lexi, Sheila, Will, Brent

Unlike most gross eating challenges, this one does not seem too bad. As gross as the food may sound, nobody’s throwing up.

Of course, you have to actually follow the rules, which Rob fails to do, opting to pick it up and eat it, so he’ll need to do it again. A relatively easy way to learn an important lesson that you need to pay attention to the clues.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is the Bund Observatory, a 100 year old signal tower.

Amy & Daniel have made what could potentially be a $1 million mistake. They just told the team behind them where to look for the clue leading to the pit stop, and this team can run faster than they can. Should have told them to get lost. Harsh lesson learned, but they still seem to indicate they’d make the same mistake again given the chance. Natalie & Nadiya are smarter, and they just pretend that they haven’t seen the woman with the abacus when Rob & Kelley ask them. Gary & Will do the same when they see Jaymes & James

First: Abbie & Ryan
Second: Amy & Daniel
Third: Caitlin & Brittany
Fourth: Natalie & Nadiya
Fifth: Rob & Kelley
Sixth: James & Abba
Seventh: Josh & Brent
Eighth: Gary & Will
Ninth: Trey & Lexi
Tenth: Jaymes & James
Eliminated: Rob & Sheila

Their physical condition bails them out, as the Chippendales squeak out a tenth place finish. As the last team to arrive, Rob & Sheila have been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 21 Episode 2, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Philippines Episode 2

Zane came up with a ridiculous strategy in Survivor: Philippines Episode 1. Tell people to vote him out. Needless to say, they did.

Russell’s big mouth damn near got him voted out. If not for Zane, he would have been eliminated. He tells us he’s learned his lesson: no more being bossy. Yeah, I heard that story last week.

Angie tells us the only reason she’s cuddling with Malcolm is because she is cold.

RC finds a clue in the rice, and she tells Abi. Then they read it out loud. RC says this is a sign of loyalty, but Abi says she only shared the information because she got caught finding it. Regardless, their alliance is hitting rough seas. Abi, who does not deny she is too close for comfort with Pete, accuses RC of being too close to Mike. That said, she warns her not to screw her over because if she does, she’s dead. Nothing like threats between friends and allies.

The rain keeps pouring, so Jonathan’s tribe heads for the caves, leaving him back at camp alone. This gives him the opportunity to scurry through the mud and look for the idol. As the others return to camp, he gets busted, but they don’t seem to notice what they just saw. For all his frantic searching, he takes a step back and thinks about the clue. It is right under his nose, or rather the nose on the rice container where the clue was. He runs through camp yelling “Yeah, baby. I’m on fire.” Still, nobody notices anything strange.

Roxy wants Angie out because she’s the useless half of the Angie/Malcolm showmance. This provides Russell with a lifeline because now they can aim for a new target. Denise, being in an alliance with Malcolm, is not as keen on this idea.

Lisa’s introverted and not so good with chit chat. Bad news since she’s in what’s largely a social game. The rest of the tribe assumes she must be off looking for the idol, but really she’s just sitting on her own and crying.

I don’t recall an episode with this much rain. They say it’s not stopping for more than half an hour, which is quickly taking its toll on the players, some more than others. Specifically, Roxy shares her breakdown with the tribe. She prays to the man upstairs, and the rain stops. It must be a miracle then. To give thanks, she starts speaking in tongues. Denise finds this objectionable because she doesn’t think asking a higher power for favors either works or is appropriate.

At the challenge, two tribe members will pull pull a sled with puzzle pieces, then one person will serve as a caller to help two others solve the puzzle. Reward for the first tribe is blankets, pillows, and a tarp. Reward for the second tribe is a tarp. Abi sits out for Tandang; Dawson sits out for Kalabaw.

Matsing falls way behind on the first lap. Malcolm evens things out in the second lap by ignoring Roxy and just doing everything on his own. Then Russell and Angie again bring up the rear to put Matsing behind heading into the puzzle. Kalabaw solves their first of three puzzles, and Tandang is right behind them. Tandang finishes their second puzzle. Matsing has managed to catch up to them. Kalabaw is the last to finish their second puzzle. Tandang wins immunity. Kalabaw places second. Matsing will be heading back to tribal council again. Russell proceeds to yell about how he’s angry. As hard a time as he gives Angie, he wasn’t any more use in this challenge than she was, despite being a lot bigger and stronger.

The question going into tribal council is which of their two young girls, neither of whom is contributing anything, needs to be sent home. With Malcolm and Angie in a showmance and Roxy and Russell in an alliance of lack of choice, Denise is the middlewoman to break the tie.

Roxy tells Jeff she doesn’t like that her tribe is working too much at camp. Angie’s response to one thing she could change: it would be nice if they could have some cookies. Even if it sounds silly, this is a fair answer, one that is seemingly harmless and couldn’t get her in trouble with anybody, but she gets more grief about it than Roxy saying they need to be lazy at camp.

Roxy points out that Malcolm and Angie are in an alliance… and then some. His defense is that he’s just cold, and she’s like a little sister to him. Roxy finds the concept of snuggling with a sister to be creepy. This all bothers her because it’s like a booby trap, one made out of silicone.

Votes
Roxy
Angie
Roxy
Roxy

With 3 votes, Roxy has been voted off the island. She probably should have prayed.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 3, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Big Brother 14 Winner

Big Brother 14 Episode 29 was a complete waste of time and an insult to the intelligence of the audience, even by Big Brother standards. If you missed it, don’t worry. You did not miss anything of any substance. They didn’t even bother to reveal who won either of the first two parts of the three part HOH competition. Tonight, all three competitions, the final eviction, the jury scenes, and the voting will be crammed into one episode before either Dan Gheesling, Ian Terry, or Danielle Murphree will be crowned the Big Brother season 14 winner.

We start off with part 1 of the final HOH competition, the endurance round. They are on fishing hooks while being slammed against a wall in the rain. 15 minutes before the eviction, Dan made a deal with Ian to throw this part of the competition. The reason? He tells Danielle about the deal before the competition so she can see she really can be stupid enough to trust him again. As planned, poorly dressed in shorts and a t-shirt (for this notoriously freezing competition), Ian drops at 17 minutes. Now it’s time to talk Danielle into dropping, which she does. As endurance competitions go, this was not one of them, only being surpassed in its brevity by the year Janelle got distracted and fell after 3 seconds after Boogie hopped down at the opening bell.

Dan tells us he wants to take Danielle to the final two. Perhaps she really can trust him, if for no other reason than he wants to go against someone who hasn’t done anything all season.

The second part of the competition is the Big Brother skyscraper. They’ll have to clean the pictures of eliminated houseguests and place them in the correct order. I’m not sure who this favors. It doesn’t play to either of their strengths. Ian has the better memory, but they should both know the eviction order. Neither is in particularly good shape. Danielle finished in 7:31. Ian finished in 6:04, and he wins.

With Ian having pulled off the win, it’s time for plan B. Dan and Danielle stage a fight. Ian’s anger at Dan for celebrating and telling him right in front of Danielle that he just won $50k is quickly overshadowed by Danielle’s threats that she’ll taint the jury against him.

Next part of the plan: convince Ian to throw yet another part of this competition. After all, she can’t be angry with him if he’s not the one voting her out.

Ian has support within the jury because he made some tough decisions, but Jenn calls him a rat and a snitch. The jury is nearly unanimous that Danielle had it easy. As for Dan, he’s been aggressive, perhaps too aggressive, giving him full control of the house for the past few weeks.

Now the third part of the final HOH competition, the 50/50 multiple guess based on jury statements portion.

Ashley said, “My favorite moment in the house was… when I went on an ice cream date with Frank.” Both are correct.

Joe said, “My biggest regret in the game was… my 10 alliances.” Both are correct.

Britney said, “The most embarrassing moment in the house for me was… when one of my players seriously told me that she had bartered cigarettes for a vote.” Ian is correct to take the lead.

Frank said, “The moment in the house that irritated me the most was… being on the block every week.” Ian is correct again.

Jenn said, “The most uncomfortable moment in the house was… the Frank and Willie fight outside.” Ian is correct again and is the final HOH. He says he won by guessing.

I can’t think of a logical reason why Ian would choose to go against Dan in the final two. Nonetheless, he honors his Renegade alliance, and Danielle has been evicted from the Big Brother house.

The first jury question is for Ian. Did he make his own decisions, or did he just go along with the group? He says he made his own decisions. Dan disagrees, but it’s not his question.

Dan’s first question is about lying and backstabbing. Did he cross the line when he swore on the bible or his wedding ring? Idiots. I can see an argument for him crossing the line, but surely it was not there that he did it. He realizes there may have been an alternate path, but he was already up to his elbows in blood and has to go to confession anyway.

Jenn doesn’t respect snitches.

Joe asks about Dan only winning one HOH. Memo to those who aren’t paying attention: winning competitions isn’t everything. In fact, it can be downright stupid. Win when you need to, not every time. If you have to win every time, you’re doing something wrong. Frank can attest to that. Dan’s strategy was simple. Stab everybody in the back.

Ian says he deserves to win over Dan because he took his fate into his own hands, switching alliances rather than sticking with his original alliance.

Dan says he deserves to win because Ian didn’t form any alliance like he claims. He was dragged upstairs on a dog leash into an already existing foursome.

Ian was unaware of Dan’s final two deal with Danielle, presenting one last opportunity for Danielle’s shocked face.

Ian highlights his competition wins. Then he talks about Dan having lost more lives in this game. Huh? Dan has backstabbed everybody.

Dan agrees. He was ruthless. At the end of the day, he wants the jury to vote for who played the game.

So the jury has a clear decision. Do they vote for the person who played the best game, or do they vote personally against someone they’re mad at? Both sides of the coin are not lacking representation in the jury’s comments tonight.

During this Q&A session, Ian has been growing increasingly hostile and bitter toward Dan. He has finally learned something. Dan never had any intention of taking him to the final two. Like everybody else, Dan duped and outplayed him, and he bought it right up until the end.

Janelle was amazed by Dan and the fact that these people were too foolish to eliminate him. Wil would like them to take responsibility for falling for his lies.

Votes
Danielle: Dan
Shane: Ian
Jenn: Ian
Joe: Ian
Frank: Ian
Britney: Ian
Ashley: Ian

By a vote of 6-1, Ian is the Big Brother 14 winner. I agree with Janelle. This is a travesty. It’s not that Ian didn’t play a good game. Dan’s just better. Granted, some of the lies Dan told were just simply unnecessary. It seemed as if he was just trying to make big moves for the sake of proving he could. He seemed to make an extra effort to amp up the jury’s bitterness to the highest level since Danielle lost Big Brother 3. What a boring season it would have been without him, though. At least Danielle didn’t win, and considering the composition of the jury, she had a good chance if she were up against Dan, as Frank, Joe, and Shane in particular were such big babies they never would have written down Dan’s name.

The winner of the $25,000 prize for America’s player is Frank. Really?

Survivor: Philippines Episode 1

Lisa Whelchel (Blair Warner), baseball player Jeff Kent, and returning medically evacuated contestants Michael Skupin, Russell Swan, and Jonathan Penner round out the Survivor: Philippines cast of 18 contestants vying for the title of Sole Survivor. They will be split into three tribes as opposed to the usual two.

The premiere of Survivor gives us a welcome break from the standard two or three singing competitions that are on every night since every network has at least one. They’re going to keep driving that sub-genre into the ground until it dies, the sooner the better at this pace. Sorry, NBC and Fox, but I’ll be sticking to CBS for the night. I’ll watch Simon on DVR, though.

Jeff Kent is hoping people won’t recognize him. That’ll last two days, tops. Most people won’t know him, but somebody has to. As far as Lisa, I suspect she’ll last as long as the boat ride over before being recognized.

Zane’s the only newbie who is not famous that gets to speak before the theme song. He talks about his tattoo of Frankenstein, who gave someone a flower then strangled everybody.

They are already divided into three tribes before they even hit the beach.

Kalabaw (red): Carter, Dana, Jeff, Jonathan, Katie, Sarah
Matsing (blue): Angie, Denise, Malcolm, Roxanne, Russell, Zane
Tandang (yellow): Abi-Maria, Artis, Lisa, Michael, Peter, Robert

Roxanne discusses the most extreme thing she’s seen on this show, and she talks about Russell, who joins them now.

Michael immediately recognizes Lisa. That secret didn’t last very long. Her younger tribe members probably have never even heard of the show, though.

Red tribe gets off to a rocky start. Just getting into the water, their boat submerges. During this, Jeff hurts his leg, and they are left scrambling for the supplies they just gathered.

Unlike last time, Russell does not want to be a leader again. He wants some other idiot to accept that responsibility. Despite this, he’s the one giving orders.

Russell and Malcolm manage to get fire going within the first hour, which very rarely happens without man-made tools, let alone that quickly.

The injured Jeff is rallying the troops against Jonathan. They want to get rid of the veteran. Never actually happens, but good luck to you.

RC says she’s an executive assistant. She doesn’t want anyone to know she’s a banker. I don’t understand lying right off the bat about such silly things.

Abi, Pete, and RC already have an alliance in about five minutes, and they ask Mike to be their fourth.

Dawson knows who Jeff Kent is, which she believes is something she alone knows. She also guesses he’s probably made $30 million during his time in the majors. Unlike Jeff, Lisa’s been out of the spotlight for decades, and she says she lost all of her Facts of Life money in the 80s.

Zane fancies himself a people person, and he has an alliance with everybody on his tribe on day 1. Of course, he reveals this information, so everybody knows about his alliances.

Mike willingly takes on a leadership role and doesn’t try pretending otherwise. He’s already got blood dripping from his head, a cut on his foot, and blisters and cuts on his hands on the second day.

Jonathan goes off on his own to search for the idol, which is not lost on his tribe. His search in their bag of rice leads him to a clue. For all Jonathan’s searching, Russell just stumbles on his clue by accident as he’s cooking rice. Zane catches him both in his search and his lie.

At the immunity challenge, they are tied together in pairs. The first two tribes to win are immune. The winning tribe receives a complete fire making kit; the second place tribe receives flint. The first sets of pairs run and climb a rope ladder to retrieve paddles. The second sets of pairs led by Tandang will row a boat and dive for puzzle pieces. Matsing is right behind them, and Kalabaw is dead last after a slow run by Dana and Katie. Thanks to Jeff and Carter’s fast rowing, Kalabaw takes second place, but Tandang extends its lead. The final phase is to solve the puzzle. In a very close race that comes down to the last piece, Kalabaw overtakes Tandang to place first, while Tandang finishes second.

Matsing will be heading to tribal council. Russell’s overpowering of the first three days continued at the challenge. He barked out orders who was doing what and refused to listen.

Strangely, Zane throws himself on the chopping block. He says to go ahead and vote him out. But he doesn’t mean it. What kind of strategy is this? Adding insult to stupidity, he guarantees Malcolm 100% that Russell has the idol.

Zane compares Russell to an onion. The more layers you peel back, the more you cry.

Votes
Zane
Russell
Zane
Zane
Zane

With 4 votes, Zane has been voted off the island. He shot himself in the foot, but regardless the tribe is left weaker because they have a dysfunctional leader.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 2, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Big Brother 14 Episode 29

Danielle gave Dan all the power in Big Brother 14 Episode 28, and he used it to get rid of Shane, surprising her, Shane, and nobody else.

With the CBS primetime lineup officially starting at 7:30 now, you’d think they would be able to get it done on time. Nope, still behind by about 8 minutes.

After getting rid of Shane, Dan says he’s worried that now’s the time to start working on votes. Since the jury house already consists of 6 of its 7 members, it’s a little late to start worrying about that.

Meanwhile, Danielle’s whining about the fact that Dan just screwed her over for about the fourth time, which would not have happened if she did not allow it to happen. She’s actually talking tough for a change, though, telling us she’ll get revenge on him. Perhaps she’s not believing his lie that he’s willing to hand her half a million dollars any more.

We’ll be able to get a little bit of new content tonight, but its purpose is primarily a season recap.

After an hour of recaps (and after the DVR recordings have run over), we finally get to something new. The first part of the three part HOH competition. The first part is an endurance competition. Their challenge is to ride a fishing pole on which they will be dunked under water then smashed into a wall.

And that’s where we leave off. Lame. They had an hour to get through this, and it’s not like we don’t already know the results. To find out who wins the first two parts of the HOH competition, check out the BB14 spoilers.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 14 Episode 30, where we will find out who the Big Brother 14 winner is, which airs Wednesday at 9:30/8:30c on CBS.

Big Brother 14 Episode 28

Jenn was evicted in Big Brother 14 Episode 27, then Danielle won HOH.

The veto holder is the one with the true power. Unless that person is the HOH, whoever wins the veto will cast the sole vote to evict.

Ian is under the impression that it’s 2 against 2. What he fails to realize is that Dan has deals with everyone in the house and for that matter has had deals with the majority of the house for weeks, including more than one he’s sent packing.

Rather than forcing Danielle to choose, Dan tells her to go ahead and nominate him alongside Ian. His hope is that Shane will feel comfortable and will be willing to do whatever she wants, and what she wants will be whatever Dan tells her.

Nominations
Shane is safe.
Dan and Ian have been nominated for eviction.

We now take our first trip to the jury house. They all seem to have received the hint that Dan’s going to win, though they’re not all happy about it. Britney respects that he’s playing a great game, but Frank’s particularly bitter.

At the veto competition, they must match clues about the season with the houseguests. Each houseguest will be linked to two clues. Ian is the first one to buzz in. He thinks he must have missed a question or two. Or seven. Shane’s first attempt is no more successful. Ian narrows it down to 3 wrong. Then he makes things worse. On Danielle’s first attempt, she only has 2 wrong. Dan’s doing just as badly as the other guys. Fixing her mistake, Danielle wins the power of veto.

Danielle should keep things the same, though Dan hopes to convince her to use the veto on him. If they’re smart, they’ll get rid of Dan, but it doesn’t seem like they will be. In either case, whoever doesn’t go home is the odds on favorite to win.

Dan lets Danielle know he doesn’t trust Shane. In turn, Shane’s clearly the more trustworthy of the two, so if her goal is to keep Shane safe, giving Dan the power is not the smart way to do that.

I’m not sure I understand why Dan would want to compete in the finals against Ian rather than Shane, but it all comes down to the fact that he has final two deals with Danielle and Ian but not with Shane.

At the veto ceremony, Danielle uses the power of veto to save Dan. Shane is the only person who can be his replacement nominee.

With the veto around his neck, Dan is the only person who will be casting a vote tonight. By a vote of 1-0, Shane has been evicted from the Big Brother house. It may be a scum move, but at the end of the day, Dan just won even more points with the jury members voting for who’s playing the best game. The only question is whether the game is too unnecessarily aggressive, just making big moves for the sake of making big moves.

Danielle’s angry that Dan broke her trust. Again. She has nobody to blame but herself. Shane would have done as she pleased. Dan has proved repeatedly he’s in it for himself. To be fair to him, though, he may have screwed her over a lot, but he has ultimately been a driving force at carrying her forward without directly harming her (emotional distress notwithstanding).

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 14 Episode 29, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

America’s Got Talent Season 7 Winner

The remaining six finalists performed in America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 30. Tonight one of them will be crowned the America’s Got Talent Season 7 winner. Too bad NBC, the network that no longer has any use for The Biggest Loser, has managed to find 2 hours in its schedule to drag us through the standard painful 2 hour revealing process.

1 hour in, and still nothing has happened. The side by side comparison at least lets us know Tom Cotter’s a lot more entertaining than Joan Rivers, though.

Now that 75 minutes have passed, it’s time for the first result to finally be revealed. In sixth place is The Untouchables. In fifth place is Joe Castillo. In fourth place is David Garibaldi & His CMYK’s.

This leaves us with the scenario Howard proposed last night. The winner will be the comedian, the earth harpist, or the dogs.

In third place is William Close. Hard to split the two who remain, as for a change the right two acts are left standing in the final two. A lame singer will not beat a much more talented variety act. I think this is a first for the American version of this show.

The America’s Got Talent season 7 winner is Olate Dogs. I’d rather watch the comedian for 90 minutes than the dogs, but this is easily the most talented animal act we’ve seen.

America’s Gol Talent will be back again next year for season 8, but the game of judging musical chairs continues. Sharon Osbourne has already thrown a fit and quit the show. It would hardly be a surprise to see one or both of the other judges follow her exit.

America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 30

The second set of finalists was chosen in America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 29, setting the stage for tonight’s final performances.

David Garibaldi & His CMYK’s never were an act I fully understood, though the end product they finish with is always impressive. It’s just a matter of getting there. Their painting for the night is Al Einstein.

Tom Cotter’s made it further than any comedian before, and he’s got a chance to make it to the top. Like last time, he has prepared multiple acts, and he has Nick roll the dice to determine what he’s going to do, jokes about the bad examples adults set for children. He again gets the judges to their feet.

The Untouchables have made it one step beyond Miami All Stars. A bunch of kids dancing like Tina Turner? I did not see that coming.

Sand artist Joe Castillo does a tribute to America’s Got Talent for his final performance, creating portraits of the judges. Still good, but not as emtional as his earlier efforts.

William Close’s initial simplicity impressed me. The trick is adding additional elements to the show without the earth harp getting lost. As before, he gets a standing ovation from the judges, but I still feel some of it’s lost in translation.

The final performance of the season is the most talented animal act I’ve seen (a lot better than either anything on this show or Britain’s Got Talent winners Ashley & Pudsey), Olate Dogs. They start with some two legged walking and hurdle jumping, add in some barrel rolls, and as expected some backflips. Howard says it’s between the comedian, the earth harp, and them, which I’d call a fair assessment.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of America’s Got Talent Season 7 Episode 31, where we will find out who the America’s Got Talent Season 7 winner is, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on NBC.